diff --git a/KeywordSearch/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/keywordsearch/HighlightedMatchesSource.java b/KeywordSearch/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/keywordsearch/HighlightedMatchesSource.java
index 0699d61ac7..dbd3e41f80 100644
--- a/KeywordSearch/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/keywordsearch/HighlightedMatchesSource.java
+++ b/KeywordSearch/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/keywordsearch/HighlightedMatchesSource.java
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ class HighlightedMatchesSource implements MarkupSource {
     public String getMarkup() {
 
         SolrQuery q = new SolrQuery();
-        final String queryEscaped = KeywordSearchUtil.escapeLuceneQuery(solrQuery);
+        final String queryEscaped = KeywordSearchUtil.escapeLuceneQuery(solrQuery, true);
 
         q.setQuery(queryEscaped);
         q.addFilterQuery("id:" + content.getId());
diff --git a/KeywordSearch/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/keywordsearch/KeywordSearchResultFactory.java b/KeywordSearch/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/keywordsearch/KeywordSearchResultFactory.java
index af06e64f36..7665305c20 100644
--- a/KeywordSearch/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/keywordsearch/KeywordSearchResultFactory.java
+++ b/KeywordSearch/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/keywordsearch/KeywordSearchResultFactory.java
@@ -185,7 +185,7 @@ public class KeywordSearchResultFactory extends ChildFactory<KeyValueThing> {
             StringBuilder highlightQuery = new StringBuilder();
             Collection<Term> terms = tcq.getTerms();
             for (Term term : terms) {
-                final String termS = KeywordSearchUtil.escapeLuceneQuery(term.getTerm());
+                final String termS = KeywordSearchUtil.escapeLuceneQuery(term.getTerm(), true);
                 highlightQuery.append(termS);
                 highlightQuery.append(" ");
             }
diff --git a/KeywordSearch/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/keywordsearch/KeywordSearchUtil.java b/KeywordSearch/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/keywordsearch/KeywordSearchUtil.java
index efd4b7e545..9b8afa65a1 100755
--- a/KeywordSearch/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/keywordsearch/KeywordSearchUtil.java
+++ b/KeywordSearch/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/keywordsearch/KeywordSearchUtil.java
@@ -58,10 +58,32 @@ public class KeywordSearchUtil {
         return dirName;
     }
 
-    public static String escapeLuceneQuery(String query) {
+    /**
+     * Perform standard escaping / encoding into UTF-8 before sending over net
+     * @param query to be encoded
+     * @param escapeLuceneChars if true perform first escaping of Lucene specific special chars
+     * such as /+-&|!(){}[]^"~*?:\ and treat the whole query as literal word
+     * @return encoded query
+     */
+    public static String escapeLuceneQuery(String query, boolean escapeLuceneChars) {
         String queryEscaped = null;
+        String inputString = query;
+        
+        if (escapeLuceneChars == true) {
+            final String ESCAPE_CHARS = "/+-&|!(){}[]^\"~*?:\\";
+            StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
+            for (int i = 0; i< inputString.length(); ++i) {
+                char c = inputString.charAt(i);
+                if (ESCAPE_CHARS.contains(Character.toString(c)) )  {
+                    sb.append("\\");
+                }
+                sb.append(c);
+            }
+            inputString = sb.toString();
+        }
+        
         try {
-            queryEscaped = URLEncoder.encode(query, "UTF-8"); 
+            queryEscaped = URLEncoder.encode(inputString, "UTF-8"); 
         }
         catch (UnsupportedEncodingException ex) {
             logger.log(Level.SEVERE, "Error escaping URL query, should not happen.", ex);
@@ -70,6 +92,7 @@ public class KeywordSearchUtil {
         return queryEscaped;
     }
     
+    
     public static void displayDialog(final String title, final String message, final DIALOG_MESSAGE_TYPE type) {
         int messageType;
         if (type == DIALOG_MESSAGE_TYPE.ERROR)
diff --git a/KeywordSearch/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/keywordsearch/LuceneQuery.java b/KeywordSearch/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/keywordsearch/LuceneQuery.java
index 7060b7c780..82d3799523 100644
--- a/KeywordSearch/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/keywordsearch/LuceneQuery.java
+++ b/KeywordSearch/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/keywordsearch/LuceneQuery.java
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ public class LuceneQuery implements KeywordSearchQuery {
 
     @Override
     public void escape() {
-        queryEscaped = KeywordSearchUtil.escapeLuceneQuery(query);
+        queryEscaped = KeywordSearchUtil.escapeLuceneQuery(query, true);
         isEscaped = true;
     }
 
diff --git a/KeywordSearch/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/keywordsearch/TermComponentQuery.java b/KeywordSearch/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/keywordsearch/TermComponentQuery.java
index ffda074aaf..d25a8c1dd9 100644
--- a/KeywordSearch/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/keywordsearch/TermComponentQuery.java
+++ b/KeywordSearch/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/keywordsearch/TermComponentQuery.java
@@ -165,11 +165,15 @@ public class TermComponentQuery implements KeywordSearchQuery {
         //it's much more efficient and should yield the same file IDs as per match queries
         //requires http POST query method due to potentially large query size
         StringBuilder filesQueryB = new StringBuilder();
+        final int lastTerm = terms.size() -1;
+        int curTerm = 0;
         for (Term term : terms) {
-            //final String termS = KeywordSearchUtil.escapeLuceneQuery(term.getTerm());
+            //final String termS = KeywordSearchUtil.escapeLuceneQuery(term.getTerm(), true);
             final String termS = term.getTerm();
             filesQueryB.append(termS);
-            filesQueryB.append(" ");
+            if (curTerm != lastTerm)
+                filesQueryB.append(" ");
+            ++curTerm;
         }
         List<FsContent> uniqueMatches = new ArrayList<FsContent>();
 
@@ -194,6 +198,7 @@ public class TermComponentQuery implements KeywordSearchQuery {
                 results.add(f);
             }
         }
+    
 
 
         return results;